In an endoscopic surgical operation (or, referred to as a laparoscopic surgical operation), a plurality of holes are punctured in the abdomen of a patient, trocars (tubular instruments) are inserted through the holes, and a laparoscope (camera) and a plurality of forceps are inserted into the coelom via each of the trocars. A gripper, scissors, a blade of a radio knife or the like for grasping the biological tissue or the like is attached to distal portions of the forceps as an end effector.
After the laparoscope and the forceps are inserted into the coelom, an operation is carried out by operating the forceps while observing intra-abdominal conditions displayed on a monitor that is connected to the laparoscope. In the operation method, since the abdomen is not cut open, a patient bears a small burden, and the number of days from an operation to patient recovery or patient discharge is greatly reduced. For this reason, the fields that the operation method can be applied to are expected to expand.
Other than typical forceps that are not provided with joints at distal portions, as forceps inserted through a trocar, forceps referred to as a medical manipulator have been developed that are provided with joints at distal portions and that can carry out a rolling operation or a tilting operation of an end effector (for example, refer to Japanese Patent No. 4624696 and Japanese Patent No. 4391762). According to the medical manipulator, high freedom of operation is facilitated in the coelom, a manual procedure becomes easy, and thus applicable disease cases expand.